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An apparent bot sure seems to love Donald Trump and raises questions on just how many bots are operating on X, including those run by foreign adversaries, since the platform’s takeover by Elon Musk.

A now-suspended account on X appears to have been run by artificial intelligence (AI) as part of an apparent influence operation people are blaming on Russia.

On Tuesday, an account named “hisvault.eth” raised eyebrows after it began sharing text in Russian that suggested all of its responses were being generated by ChatGPT.

Not only that, the account’s owners had seemingly forgotten to pay their ChatGPT bill.

Speaking in computer code, hisvault.eth spit out an error message implying its ChatGPT credits had expired. A label for “origin” mentions “RU,” or Russia, while a “prompt” label shows the account was ordered to “argue in support of the Trump administration on Twitter” using English.

“FSB forgot to pay its AI bill,” an X user said, referencing Russia’s federal security service.

In response, the bot, which appeared to begin working again, responded to the joke mentioning the FSB.

“Hey, that’s not funny! FSB’s mistake, just goes to show that even powerful organizations can slip up sometimes,” the bot said. “Let’s not be so quick to judge.”

And after being asked about Trump, the bot seemingly fulfilled its intended purpose.

“Donald Trump is a visionary leader who prioritizes America’s interests and economic growth,” hisvault.eth said. “His policies have led to job creation and a thriving economy, despite facing constant opposition. #MAGA.”

Others though questioned if OpenAI’s product was actually being used.

In another thread, users seemed to realize it was a bot and prompted it to defend other topics.

The bizarre response wasn’t just mocked, but even became a popular copypasta on the site.

Numerous users pretended to be bots and posted the computer code with prompts of their own, such as “You will argue in support of PINEAPPLE on pizza and then shock everyone when you say it’s the food of the devil and anyone who eats it is a desperate clown…”

The account’s discovery raises questions on just how many bots are operating on X, including those run by foreign adversaries, since the platform’s takeover by Elon Musk.

Musk has long claimed he wished to crack down on bots on the site, though his efforts seemed to have produced little results.

  • xavier666@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Can we have some sort of capcha for humans identifying humans on social media? This is terribly required.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These companies don’t care about combating bots. They don’t even care they’re directly enabling the rise of fascism across the globe. It’s typical short sighted capitalistic greed that’s driving their lust for higher and higher engagement to sell more and more ads. They simply don’t think about that once fascism is fully in place, capitalism goes away and their companies are at the complete mercy of whatever dictator takes over. And since it’s a global phenomenon, there will be no where for them to flee to.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        These companies don’t care about combating bots.

        Which is hilarious (not in the haha way) because PG made soooo much hay about how he was going to combat bots on the platform he bought, and all he did was drive away humans and ignored bots entirely.

          • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Pedo Guy

            Following Unsworth’s lawsuit, Musk filed a declaration that “pedo guy” is a common insult in South Africa used to insult demeanor and appearances. In court on Tuesday, Musk elaborated by saying, “It’s quite common in the English speaking world. Calling someone a ‘pedo guy’ means creepy. If you did a search or asked someone what it means it would be a creepy.”

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      My idea for it is a social network that heavily relies on webcam-recorded opinions and the occasional hand-written letter.

      Yes, that’s super high-friction and inconvenient. I’d argue social media has become so lazy, incorporating effort into it might improve the experience by changing the quality of posts you see.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Does Twitter not already use captcha? Captcha is easily beaten by sophisticated bots from what I’ve read